Stephen W. Gee's

Hi all. It’s been a while, right? I figured it was time to finally give you that update I promised two posts ago, which was, er, in August 2017. You deserve an update about my progress on Book 3. The long and the short: there hasn’t been much. Progress, that is. So this is going to double as an explanation (exploration) of why (what happened). But before that: I have not given up on writing the next Firesign book, nor on writing...

Here follows a review of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, written several hours after I saw it with reckless disregard for spoilers, because I don’t get paid to review movies and so I just can’t be arsed. You’ve been warned! My top line review is that The Last Jedi is a good movie, both on its own and in the greater Star Wars mythos. It’s not without its flaws, though many of them are imposed on it by having to clean up The...

What’s going on, y’all. Been a bit since I’ve posted. I’ll get into that in the next post. For now, I’ve something else to say. For those who don’t know, I’m from Texas. Though I was born in Grapevine, TX, and first lived in Hurst, TX, and went to college in the aptly named College Station, TX, I’ve spent most of my life in Houston. Until a little over a year ago, Houston was my home. Houston is drowning. If you...

I finally get it! Writers and salespeople are the same! They’re whiny, lazy, cowardly, constantly make excuses, always blame others, and are generally reprehensible! (Also, the drinking. All the drinking.) They’re the same because writers and salespeople do the same thing: they dance with the fear. Day in and day out, the thing they do is tiptoe up to the edge and, when they can no longer put it off any longer, they jump. And once you jump, it’s easy!...

You can learn something about me and my Firesign series if you know a pair of seemingly unrelated tidbits: I loved the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and I used to watch (and enjoy) Glee. There’s a unifying theme throughout the three. It’s probably no surprise when I say I enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy. So did everyone else, and it’s an ensemble space opera romp with narrative similarities to my own work (a group of friends, adventure, traveling, tons of explosions). Glee might be more surprising;...

If you’re wondering why I haven’t been posting the past month, here’s why: No, knees are not supposed to be that size. So, I blew out my knee while skiing early last month. On the third run of the first day of what should have been five days of skiing in Colorado with my family, because that’s how I roll! Literally. I went tumbling pretty bad, and my kneecap ended up on the side of my leg. I had to...

Let me tell you one of the most important lessons my favorite author ever taught me. In Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, the main villain is a thief, murderer, and all-around bastard named Carcer. He’s the very picture of a psychopath—he has no conscious, feels no guilt, and doesn’t even understand the idea of right or wrong. He’s egotistical, volatile, constantly smiling, and he always has an extra knife. In a basically well-run city where the rule of law is kept, he...

It’s not just capitalism that’s like fire. It’s the internet, it’s advertising, it’s lawyers, it’s video games, it’s beer. Where there’s power, there’s almost always danger. That the world’s filled with fire shouldn’t be cause for despair. It is a good cause for vigilance, though. “We didn’t start the fire It was always burning Since the world’s been turning” -Billy Joel Feel free to use the fire, in all of its forms. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s your friend....

Two things are undeniable about fire: it’s useful, and it’s dangerous. Anyone who’s been burned by a match or gotten too close to a campfire knows the latter for a fact. Yet it’s true that fire is useful as well. From cooking our food to warming our homes to powering the entire industrial revolution (and many of our cities today), fire has been at the center of much of human progress. Fire is powerful. Yet it’s still dangerous, as even children know. So we pin...

The conventional wisdom is that fictional stories need to appeal to their audience right after they begin, lest the audience get bored and wander off. That’s why so many action stories start off with an action scene, romance stories with a lovey-dovey scene, mysteries with something that hints toward the mystery. Grab ’em quick before they lose interest, that’s the ticket! Youjo Senki started with an episode of action, and it sucked. The second episode, which had less action, would have been a...